Union Gas To Pay $700,000 In Monroe Pollution Spill

August 02, 1985|by RANDY KRAFT, The Morning Call

Union Gas Co. of Stroudsburg plans to pay the federal government $700,000 on Monday as a settlement for money the government spent several years ago to stop coal tar pollution from getting into Brodhead Creek.

The payment is part of a consent decree reached late last month. A lawsuit to recover the money had been filed against the gas company more than two years ago by the U.S. Justice Department, on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The government is settling for less than the $900,000 it hoped to recover from the Stroudsburg gas company for work at the site. A lawyer for Union Gas said the money will be paid on Monday.

In the agreement, Union Gas "expressly denies" any liability and says paying the money is not an admission of any wrongdoing.

But the order leaves open the possibility that Union Gas can be held liable for future costs if the government decides to initiate a more thorough cleanup of the site in the Monroe County borough.

Joseph Donovan, an attorney in EPA's regional office in Philadelphia, said the agreement "shows again that our law is strong enough to be used to induce favorable settlements." He said most of the money collected will go into an EPA fund for use at other Superfund sites.

James Sheehan, an assistant U.S. attorney with the Justice Department in Philadelphia, said the case against Union Gas came "very close" to trial a couple of times.

Sheehan said one reason the settlement was reached July 18 was to "get the borough off the hook." He said Union Gas wanted Stroudsburg to be held responsible because the borough had a property easement where the coal tar was entering Brodhead Creek. Sheehan said it would have cost Stroudsburg $100,000 in legal fees to go to trial, even if the borough won.

The Superfund site is along the creek between the Interstate 80 and Interborough bridges, behind the Union Gas building on Main Street.

Brodhead is ranked at 493 out of 812 Superfund sites on EPA's National Priority List.

Even if further studies determine no more work must be done at the site, Union Gas probably will have to pay for those studies. Lawyers for both the Justice Department and EPA said the government will turn to Union Gas and other parties to recover any more money spent at the site.

Spokesmen for Union Gas have maintained such studies are a waste of money. The gas company feels the cleanup has been completed.

The state Department of Environmental Resources is in charge of determining the extent of contamination at the site and the best ways to clean it up or contain it. That investigation has not begun. Once it starts, it will take about a year to complete and cost at least $500,000, according to DER.

Most of the contaminated property now is owned by Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. of Allentown. PP&L has spent at least $500,000 to deal with the problem at the site and believes it has pumped most of the coal tar out of the ground. PP&L was not listed as a co-defendant in the lawsuit brought against Union Gas.

Union Gas was the only company sued. "Union Gas was our most straightforwar d case," said Donovan. "They were the cause of the problem."

In 1945, Union Gas, a subsidiary of Penn Fuel Gas Co. of Oxford, Chester County, took over a company that owned a coal-gasification power plant at that location. The coal tar, which contains toxic chemicals, was a waste residue dumped on the ground near the plant, which operated for many years until the late 1940s but no longer exists. The oily waste made its way underground and eventually began seeping into the creek.

The pollution was discovered in October 1980 by state workers doing an erosion-control project on flood control dikes along the creek. Cleanup work began in April 1981.

It was feared that unchecked erosion eventually could cause millions of gallons of coal tar to be released into the Brodhead, a popular Pocono fishing stream that is a tributary of the Delaware River. Pumping later done by PP&L led company environmental officials to conclude that much less coal tar was in the ground.

In 1981, EPA demanded PP&L, Union Gas and two other "responsible parties" owning contaminated property pay for cleanup measures at the creek and threatened to take legal action if they did not.

PP&L responded by initiating the pumping project on its property along the creek. Union Gas officials maintained they did not dump coal tar in the ground between 1945 and 1948, when they operated the gasification plant.

In the winter of 1981-82, EPA used Superfund money to construct a 700- foot-long underground wall to prevent the coal tar from getting to the creek. But that was considered an emergency measure, and a more thorough cleanup of the site still may be undertaken.

The government initially sought more than $450,000 to recover Superfund money used to build the wall between the creek and the underground deposit of waste. It also sought $270,000 to recover Coast Guard funds used for initial measures to stop the coal tar from getting into the creek. Later, that $720,000 cost figure was changed to more than $900,000. The new amount included legal fees and studies done at the site.

As part of the consent decree, the federal government has agreed to drop the other costs.

After the lawsuit was filed against the gas company, Union Gas tried to sue the state. It wanted the state held responsible for the discharge into the creek, maintaining it had the stream diverted following a disastrous flood in Stroudsburg in 1955. A judge ruled it was unconstitutional for Union Gas to sue the state, but the gas company is appealing that decision. Union Gas expects a decision on that appeal by mid-November.